Feds Seek Google Database Info

[dgridley]

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors.

The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.

My guess is that it's a no-brainer.. to a large degree porn not only fuels large segments of the internet but has done it's share to advance different technolgies as well...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13657303.htm

 

[user-7256]

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=159158

Looks like somebody beat you to it However I do find this very interesting.

 

[dgridley]

Thanks.. I rarely do a search for a topic.. maybe I should..

Thankfully Google seems prepared to fight access to its DB (as I believe it should). There are privacy issues at stake here.. every chink in the "armor" makes society as a whole that much more vulnerable to possible abuses down the line, even if you're not doing anything "wrong".

It's still something to be concerned about, including exactly how much data Google has at its disposal.

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=159158

Looks like somebody beat you to it However I do find this very interesting.

 

[HHDomains]

There are privacy issues at stake here.. every chink in the "armor" makes society as a whole that much more vulnerable to possible abuses down the line, even if you're not doing anything "wrong".

It does also raise a privacy issue of Google retaining this information to begin with.

 

[Eric]

Well thats part of the problem too. I wonder if it says anything about search resulits in their privacy policy.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html

 

[dgridley]

Exactly...

It does also raise a privacy issue of Google retaining this information to begin with.

 

[Maverick]

Though I'm not a big user of the Google search engine, I'm still happy that Google has stood up to the Bush administration and has said no.

Go Google Go!

 

[dgridley]

Especially seeing as, according to reports, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL caved in and acceded to the request...

Even tho the government isn't requesting any personally identifiable information, this raises some serious concerns concerning precedent.

Though I'm not a big user of the Google search engine, I'm still happy that Google has stood up to the Bush administration and has said no.

Go Google Go!

 

[photoshopfreak]

It's fair enough request i guess, but having said that we don't know how much or what data will be wanted, that can be dangerous...

 

[dgridley]

The request may be fair, but we obviously need to be concerned about the potential use and misuse of online data (or any data).

The government has already collected data from Yahoo, AOL, and MSN.. the fact they feel compelled to sue Google for complance with their request is what concerns me.

It's fair enough request i guess, but having said that we don't know how much or what data will be wanted, that can be dangerous...